Chen, Q. Y. et. al., Tetrahedron Lett., 34, 4241-4244 discloses the desire to introduce the trifluoromethyl group into organic compounds, naming aryl, benzyl, vinyl, and allyl halides, for the purpose of producing compounds useful in medicine and biochemistry. This reference also discloses the use of methyl chloro- and bromo-difluoroacetate (Cl-- or Br--CF.sub.2 COOCH.sub.3) as trifluoromethylating agents for saturated alkyl halides in the presence of KF and a co-catalyst system wherein copper iodide and cadmium iodide are disclosed to be essential, such that if either one of the co-catalysts are omitted, no trifluoromethyl products were obtained.
Among the disadvantages of this process are the use of KF, which is difficult to dissolve in solvent useful in trifluoromethylation reaction and tends to produce unwanted byproducts and the requirement for the use of cadmium iodide, which is toxic.